Prison break by armed rebel group Boko Haram raises new fears of violence as security is tightened in country’s north. A prison break by an armed group known as Boko Haram has raised fears of renewed violence in northern Nigeria just months before elections. The group staged a raid on the prison on Tuesday night [...]
Niko Mushi hated rats, as did most people in his village near Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro — until he learned the critters had a nose for land mines. Mushi, 32, has been working with giant African pouched rats for almost seven years. He now enjoys their company — “They’re just like my friend,” he says — [...]
UN troops failed 242 women and children who suffered a mass rape attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a top UN peacekeeping official has said. Congo hosts the largest and most costly UN peacekeeping mission in the world, but the mass rape attacks happened just 30km from a UN base some time [...]
The Congolese are particularly interested in pigeons, having exterminated nearly all the mammals, such as elephants and hippopotamuses, who used to come to the mudflats. The hunting of pigeons has not been controlled, and as a result the number of African Green Pigeons has fallen dramatically. Hunting these pigeons was legal up to two years [...]
Police in Mozambique have arrested nearly 150 people following violent protests which have resulted in 13 deaths over the government’s decision to increase bread prices by 30 per cent. There was little sign of a reoccurrence of the protests in the capital Maputo, mainly by young men who were assembled in part by anonymous text [...]
Congo survivor says overcrowded vessel reminded her of a ‘market in village full of people’. Two boats capsized over the weekend in separate incidents on Congo’s rivers, leaving at least 270 people feared dead, and both vessels were operating with few safety measures, officials said. Early on Saturday, a boat on a river in northwest [...]
Violent clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have left more than 40 people dead this week, according to international peacekeepers. The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) said clashes between different armed groups left six people dead and another 33 people injured on Saturday. Citing witnesses at refugee camps where the fighting took place, [...]
An outbreak of cholera in Chad has killed at least 41 people, according to medical sources. Mahamat Mamadou Adji, a health official, said on Friday that there had been nearly 600 confirmed cases in the Central African nation. Neighboring Cameroon and Nigeria are also battling outbreaks of the fast-moving infection that causes diarrhoea in victims, leading [...]
An American medical agency said gunmen fired on a private plane carrying international aid workers in eastern Congo who were forced to seek refuge in the jungle. The International Medical Corps said UN peacekeepers were en route to save the three Americans and one Georgian and two Congolese staff. The group was at the landing [...]
Two violent incidents in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, have led to the deaths of at least 14 people. Eight people were killed and 14 others wounded in a roadside bomb blast on Tuesday. Five men and three women were killed in the explosion, Ali Muse, the head of the city’s ambulance service, said. Ahmed Adma, the driver of the [...]
Spanish activist Carmen Roger of the organization Saharacciones arrives at Los Rodeos airport on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, on August 30, 2010. Spanish activists of the organization Saharacciones, who said they suffered physical abuse at the hands of Moroccan authorities, arrived in Tenerife, after being arrested and later relased by Moroccan police on [...]
Four African Union (AU) peacekeepers have been killed in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, after al-Shabab fighters fired a mortar at the presidential palace. “A mortar was fired at one of our positions, and it killed four soldiers and injured eight,” said Ba-Hoku Barigye, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force. Barigye said the dead soldiers are all [...]
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has arrived in Italy for a two-day visit that has aroused a controversy over Tripoli’s growing influence on the Italian economy. Gaddafi’s visit, aimed at celebrating the second anniversary of the 2008 Italian-Libyan friendship agreement, began on Sunday, and is his fourth since a 2008 agreement under which Silvio Berlusconi, the [...]
The sun is setting over South Africa’s oldest vineyard and the last of the wine-tasting tourists are climbing onto their buses. But one large family group has no intention of leaving – and there is little the management can do about it. Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town’s wine country, can deal with [...]
African leaders joined tens of thousands of Kenyans to witness a once-in-a-generation event: the signing into law of Kenya’s new constitution. The East African nation replaced a colonial-era constitution with one that curtails the president’s powers with an American-style system of checks and balances. President Mwai Kibaki’s official signing into law of the new constitution [...]
Researchers in South Africa have revealed the earliest direct evidence of human-made arrows. The scientists unearthed 64,000 year-old “stone points”, which they say were probably arrow heads. Closer inspection of the ancient weapons revealed remnants of blood and bone that provided clues about how they were used. The team reports its findings in the journal [...]
Heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, has flared for the third consecutive day, with six people being killed. Another 25 people were injured in the latest attacks on Wednesday, in the Bakara market area. Battles between government forces, backed by African Union troops, and al-Shabab fighters continued on several fronts in the north and south of [...]
Two Spanish aid workers held hostage by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have returned home. The release on Sunday put an end to a nine-month kidnapping ordeal. Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, were taken hostage by the North African group while on a relief mission through Mauritania in November last year. The two men were [...]
Almost 200 women have been raped by rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), during a four-day seizure of a town, aid groups have said. A US aid worker and a Congolese doctor told the Associated Press on Monday that the attacks occurred within miles of a UN peacekeepers’ base Will Cragin of the International [...]
Somali pirates who have been holding an Egyptian merchant ship since early August have demanded a $4 million ransom for the ship’s release, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Sunday. The MV Suez cargo ship transporting a large batch of cement was seized by pirates in the Red Sea on August 2. The pirates took [...]
An 11-year-old albino girl from Swaziland was shot dead in front of her friends and then beheaded in what police believe was a ritual murder. The child had been washing clothes and bathing at a river with friends and was returning home when she was grabbed by a man wearing a balaclava. As her friends [...]
More than one million South African state workers have gone on strike to press for an increase in pay, a move that threatens to paralyse Africa’s biggest economy. Schools were closed early on Wednesday as teachers left for meetings to discuss the walkout, while workers dressed in red T-shirts gathered outside hospitals and government offices. “The [...]
Suspected rebels hacked to death three Indian UN peacekeepers in their camp in Kirumba, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said Wednesday. “A group of FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) or Mai-Mai (Congolese militia) penetrated the camp at Kirumba,” General Vainqueur Mayala, commander of the 8th military region of [...]
Lawyers say that in copying an article on to her blog but leaving out a caveat, the actor revealed preconceived ideas about Charles Taylor. Mia Farrow told the war crimes tribunal in the Hague today that she used the Guardian for information about blood diamonds and Naomi Campbell’s appearance at a UN tribunal – but [...]
South African journalists have launched a campaign to fight what they say is an attempt to curtail media freedoms in a nation known for one of Africa’s freest and most open constitutions. In a declaration published in all main Sunday newspapers, the South African National Editors Forum said media restrictions proposed by the ruling African [...]
Supermodel Naomi Campbell took the stand Thursday in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and said she received a gift of “dirty-looking stones” that she assumed was from him. Campbell was handed the stones following a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997. “When I was sleeping I had a knock on my [...]
Here in this medieval city in eastern Ethiopia, the humans and the hyenas are living in peace. The truce began two centuries ago (or so the story goes) during a time of great famine. There was drought in the hills where the wildlife roamed, and hungry hyenas had sneaked into Harar and eaten people. Distressed, [...]
Four white students have pleaded guilty to charges surrounding a video they made humiliating black university employees by forcing them to consume food and drinks that they thought were tainted with urine. The men on trial, all students at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, today admitted charges of illegally and [...]
Bombs exploded at two sites in Uganda’s capital late Sunday as people watched the World Cup final on TV, and officials at the scene put the death toll at more than 20 and said it could rise further. Police Chief Kale Kaihura said he believed that Somalia’s most feared militia – al-Shabab, which has pledged [...]
Naomi Campbell, the British model, will attend a war crimes trial to give evidence about a “blood diamond” she allegedly received from Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president. “Naomi Campbell has confirmed she will attend the Charles Taylor trial at The Hague as per the court’s request. She is a witness who has been asked to [...]
Nigeria’s president has backed down on his decision to suspend the national soccer team, according to the African country’s football federation. The announcement came just before Monday’s deadline set by world governing body FIFA, which had threatened to expel Nigeria completely if the ruling was not overturned and also withhold $8 million due for participating [...]
A Zimbabwean mother killed her baby son and sold one of his ears for $20 to a Mozambican witch doctor, police have confirmed. Christine Hofisi, 21, from Chipinge near the Mozambique border, is accused of strangling the 18-month-old child before removing his left ear. The body of the little boy, who was named by local [...]
A fuel tanker flipped over and burst in flames in eastern Congo overnight, killing at least 220 villagers and wounding more than 200 – some of whom had rushed to siphon leaking liquid from the vehicle illegally, the U.N. and local officials said Saturday. The truck was transporting fuel when it overturned at high speed [...]
A high-flying British businesswoman is facing up to five years behind bars after being charged with ticket touting in South Africa. Karen Sorensen, 37, was arrested in a police raid on her hotel in Johannesburg and accused of illegally selling World Cup tickets worth nearly $450,000. Mrs Sorensen, European events director with the sports hospitality [...]
A court in South Africa has convicted the former head of Interpol for accepting bribes from a drug dealer. Jackie Selebi, also South Africa’s ex-police chief, was convicted on Friday for accepting bribes worth $156,000. The trial, which began last October, focused on Selebi’s relationship with Glenn Agliotti, a drug dealer who took him on [...]
A war crimes tribunal served a subpoena on supermodel Naomi Campbell Thursday, ordering her to testify in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The court ordered her to appear July 29 to testify or “show good cause why” she cannot. If she fails to comply she could face a prison term of up [...]
A British gorilla expert, who escaped Rwanda during the genocide, has been murdered at her home in Cameroon. Ymke Warren, 40, had her throat slit after she was bound and gagged when she confronted an intruder at the home she shared with her boyfriend Aaron Nicholas in the coastal town of Limbe. Dr Warren had [...]
Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan has banned the country’s football team from international competition for two years following their poor showing at the World Cup. Nigeria finished bottom of their group in South Africa with just one point from three matches after losing to Argentina and Greece and drawing with South Korea. Rotimi Amaechi, governor of [...]
The Desert Is Not Silent, an exhibition of ancient and contemporary Libyan art, was opened in Moscow on Monday by the son of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who heads the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF), brought to Russian capital a sophisticated mix of archeological artifacts from several Libyan museums and [...]
Fortune’s Andy Serwer says the World Cup and Fortune’s Global Forum are getting the business world to focus on South Africa:
In this stunning video from the folks at Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a daring effort is made to transport the 375-pound silverback gorilla Mukunda back to the wildlife reserve after he strayed over three miles away. Once wandering, Mukunda began destroying the crops of local villagers over the span of [...]
The players were delighted, the coach was discomforted. So which is the real Netherlands team at the World Cup? The Dutch produced their first goals of flair and finesse to beat Cameroon 2-1 and set up a second-round match with Slovakia. Robin Van Persie finished off an end-to-end move in the 36th minute, and substitute [...]
Germany and Ghana advanced to the second round of the World Cup finals on Wednesday as Australia and Serbia made their exits. Germany, who beat Ghana 1-0 at Soccer City in Johannesburg, finished top of Group D and will play England in the second round on Sunday in Bloemfontein. Ghana, the only African team to [...]
Strutting into the stadium dancing and singing, Bafana Bafana turned its final game at the World Cup into a rollicking party for all of South Africa. All that was missing was enough goals to see them through to the next round. For France, Tuesday’s 2-1 loss completed a miserable meltdown. With each team needing a [...]
The Kingdom of Ife sculptures are currently on display at the British Museum in London until 4th July and will move to the United States for a nationwide tour from September, starting at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. A hundred years ago when German explorer Leo Frobenius visited West Africa and came across [...]
Denmark eliminated Cameroon from the World Cup and sent the Netherlands through to the second round. Yet the Danes could find little to cherish in their 2-1 victory Saturday night. Dennis Rommedahl scored one goal and set up another as Denmark made the Indomitable Lions the first team knocked out of the tournament. In the [...]
Rwandan authorities have freed a US lawyer charged with genocide denial and threatening state security. The authorities allowed Peter Erlinder to leave custody on Friday on health grounds while investigations continue. Rwanda’s foreign ministry said the release of Erlinder, who worked with the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) prior to his arrest in [...]
Two Dutch women were released on bail today after facing charges that they organised the ambush marketing stunt that led to 36 orange-clad women being ejected from Soccer City earlier this week. The women were arrested under the Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act, which prevents companies benefiting from an event without paying for advertising. The [...]
Two Somali football fans have been killed by Islamic militants after being caught watching World Cup matches. The deaths happened on Saturday near the capital Mogadishu when members of the Hizbul Islam group stormed a house where people were watching Nigeria play Argentina. A further 10 people were arrested by the group, which has imposed [...]
Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the World Cup’s first episode of crowd unrest – by stadium security staff. Officers wearing helmets charged at least 400 stewards protesting about low wages. The clashes came after workers refused to leave the ground at the seaside resort of Durban last night, following [...]
The controversial vuvuzela horns could be banned from World Cup following thousands of complaints from fans, broadcasters and the players. South Africa’s World Cup organizing chief Danny Jordaan revealed his officials had been swamped by protests about the ear-bursting horns being blown during matches. Mr Jordaan told reporters that the vuvuzela would be banned ‘if [...]
The first World Cup in Africa has its first African winner. Ghana stunned Serbia when Asamoah Gyan scored on an 84th-minute penalty kick Sunday for a 1-0 victory in Group D. The win set off celebrations not only on the Loftus Versfeld pitch, but throughout Ghana. And across the African continent. “That’s what you’re seeing,” [...]
World player of the year Lionel Messi lived up to his billing with a wonderful performance in Argentina’s 1-0 win over Nigeria to confirm the South Americans’ status as one of the World Cup favorites. Though he did not score, Messi peppered the goal with shots, drawing a string of finger-tip saves, and tormented the [...]
Nelson Mandela’s 13-year-old great-granddaughter was killed in a car crash on the way home from a concert in Soweto on the eve of the World Cup, his office said Friday. The Nelson Mandela Foundation said Zenani Mandela died in a one-car accident and no one else was injured. Johannesburg Metro police spokeswoman Edna Mamonyane said [...]
Watch the FIFA World Cup Kickoff Concert, full video at: http://worldcup.vevo.com/
Police in Gambia have seized a record haul of Europe-bound cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a statement from British authorities said Wednesday. The 2,100 kilograms (4,630 pounds) of cocaine has a street value potentially worth many times higher since it is often diluted with cutting agents. “It is highly likely a large proportion [...]
A Rwandan judge has charged an American lawyer with denying Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and publishing articles that threaten national stability. Peter Erlinder, who is known for taking on controversial cases, pleaded not guilty at a five-hour hearing in a court in Kigali, the capital, on Friday. “It is the first time I have come to [...]
Lead poisoning caused by illegal gold mining has killed 163 Nigerians, most of them children, in remote villages in the past few months, a government official said on Friday. Dr Henry Akpan, the health ministry’s chief epidemiologist, told Reuters 355 cases in at least six locations in the northern Zamfara state had been reported so [...]
It might seem ironic that the same week that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was predicting Zimbabwe’s economic growth will slow to 2.2 percent, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Biti was telling the world at a different forum that the economy will expand by 7 percent this year, hedging his projections largely on diamonds. Though it might [...]
A gay couple sentenced to serve 14 years in jail in Malawi have been pardoned after their country’s president met Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were tried and found guilty of sodomy and indecency earlier this month in a move that sparked international condemnation. But after talking [...]
The State Department has issued a travel alert warning U.S. citizens in South Africa to be aware of increased terrorism risks during the World Cup, which starts June 11. “Large scale public events like the World Cup may present a wide range of attractive targets for terrorists,” the alert said. “There is a heightened risk [...]
Five Somali men have protested that they were shark fisherman not pirates despite being intercepted off Somalia’s coast after attacking a Dutch vessel with rocket launchers and assault rifles. Europe’s first modern trial for the 17th century crime of “sea robbery” has opened in Rotterdam amid protestations of innocence from the accused. The men, facing [...]
Villagers in Kenya are literally being eaten alive as crocodiles in the Tana River target human prey with devastating success. People in the village Bilisa say crocodile attacks are on the rise and have claimed six lives in the last year. The crocodiles usually go after women who come to the river for water, Kenya’s [...]
A judge in Malawi has imposed a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison with hard labour on a gay couple convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts. The judge said he wanted to protect the public from “people like you”. Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, have been in jail since they were [...]
At least 2,000 carats of Zimbabwean diamonds are being smuggled out of the country each day from South African mining company Canadile’s plant in Chiadzwa. This contravenes the Kimberley Process, a diamond watchdog reported this week. The Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development warned that large quantities of Chiadzwa diamonds were finding their way to [...]
The decision comes three months after Kenya native Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Mr Obama’s late father, testified at a closed hearing in Boston, where she arrived in a wheelchair and two doctors testified in support of her case. Ms Onyango plans to apply for a work visa and can apply for a green card [...]
The Aspinall Foundation is a charity that promotes wildlife conservation and reintroduces captive gorillas back into the wild in West Africa. Five years ago, conservationist Damian Aspinall released a gorilla, Kwibi, into the jungles of Gabon. Aspinall returned recently to reunite with a now ten-year-old Kwibi. How did the reunion go? Just watch…..
Up to 103 people have been killed in a plane crash at the airport in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The Libyan transport minister said an eight-year-old Dutch national was the sole survivor after Afriqiyah Airways’ Airbus-330 arriving from South Africa crashed on Wednesday morning. Mohamed Zidan said the boy was being treated in hospital but [...]
South Africa’s police chief is “praying” that the US football team are knocked out of the World Cup early on in order to avoid a visit by President Barack Obama. A visit by the US president – which could happen if the team makes the knockout stage – would be a nightmare, General Bheki Cele [...]
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s acting president, has been sworn in as the country’s new leader following the death of Umaru Yar’Adua. Jonathan took the oath of office at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday, just hours after officials announced the death of Yar’Adua following a long illness. Yar’Adua will be buried in his northern [...]
Nigeria’s ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, who gave amnesty to armed militants in the troubled oil-rich Niger Delta region, died Wednesday, the country’s information minister said. He was 58. Yar’Adua had not been seen in public since November, when he went to Saudi Arabia for treatment of an inflammation of tissue around his heart. He was [...]
Two explosions at mosques in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu have killed at least 30 people and wounded scores, witnesses said. It was the second attack in a week on a mosque in Bakara Market – an area of Mogadishu dominated by members of the country’s two main insurgent groups, Hizbul Islam and al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab. [...]
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has been declared the winner of this month’s landmark elections, despite facing war crimes charges over Darfur. Former rebel leader Salva Kiir has been confirmed in power in the semi-autonomous south in the first polls since the north-south war ended. The polls were Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years. Observers [...]
Writer Nawal El Saadawi has braved prison, exile and death threats in her fight against female oppression. And she isn’t about to give up now ‘I am becoming more radical with age,” says Nawal El Saadawi, laughing. “I have noticed that writers, when they are old, become milder. But for me it is the opposite. [...]
More than 20 people have reportedly been killed in violence in Mogadishu as African Union and Somali forces clashed with anti-government fighters, police and medical services sources said. At least 13 people were killed in fighting after mortars were fired at the airport, while another six people died in when two roadside bombs exploded. The [...]
Two skeletons almost 2 million years old that are part of an unknown species have caused a stir among scientists, as they could fit the evolution from apes to humans, it was announced last Thursday. The fossils, known as Australopithecus Sediba, were found by paleontologist Lee Berger and his 11-year-old son Matthew Berger. The father/son [...]
Caroline Aya was playing in front of her house in January when a neighbor put a cloth over her mouth and fled with her. A couple of days later, the 8-year-old’s body was found a short walk away — with her tongue cut out. Police believe she was offered up as a human sacrifice in [...]
Senegal has unveiled a multi-million dollar statue marking 50 years of independence, with 19 African heads of state attending the ceremony which sparked mass protest by opposition members. The 50-metre sculpture of a man, a woman and an infant has been criticised for its cost and a Muslim leader has issued a fatwa against it, branding it “un-Islamic”. Abdoulaye Wade, the [...]
South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been murdered, local media reports say. Mr Terreblanche, 69, was beaten to death on his farm in the north-west of the country, the reports said. Two people are said to have been arrested. Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, came to prominence in the [...]
A leading Canadian psychiatrist who kept accusations of gross human rights abuses in apartheid-era South Africa hidden has been charged in Calgary with sexually abusing a male patient and is being investigated over dozens of other allegations. Dr Aubrey Levin, who in South Africa was known as “Dr Shock” for his use of electricity to [...]
Conservationists scored a rare victory at a UN wildlife summit yesterday when contentious proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to weaken the 21-year-old ban on ivory sales were defeated due to concerns it would further contribute to poaching. The heated debate over the proposed sale of the two countries’ ivory stocks divided Africa, as it has [...]
The death toll from weekend violence in central Nigeria climbed to more than 500 Monday after members of a machete-wielding Muslim group attacked mostly Christian villages, officials said. More than 500 were dead and 32 injured, according to Choji Gyang, a religious affairs adviser to the head of Plateau state, who said bodies were still [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 85 million children under 5 in west and central Africa will be vaccinated against polio. The agency says the massive vaccination campaign in 19 countries by U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will start March 6. It will involve more than 400,000 volunteers and health workers. It [...]
At least 106 bodies had been recovered Tuesday after massive landslides wiped out several villages around Mount Elgon on the Uganda-Kenya border, an army spokesman and local aid officials said. The army has joined the search for an estimated 245 people who are still missing and feared dead in eastern Uganda’s Bududa district after Monday [...]
The chief of Algeria’s national police, Ali Tounsi, was shot dead in his office on Thursday shortly before noon, an Algerian daily reported. Witnesses quoted by Echorouk said Tounsi was killed by a 64-year-old retired army colonel who was hired by the national security agency to oversee the police helicopters unit. According to the report, [...]
Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua has flown back to the capital Abuja, three months after he left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Two planes landed at the presidential wing of Abuja airport, just hours after government sources said Mr Yar’Adua was due to return from a hospital in Saudi Arabia. An ambulance and several SUVs [...]
A former Nigerian state governor who serves as ranking member of the nation’s ruling party was arrested for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for public projects, an anti-corruption official said Tuesday. Agents from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Abdullahi Adamu on Monday after a more than yearlong investigation, agency spokesman [...]
A Kenyan police official says a Canadian citizen has been kidnapped after dropping his child off at school in Kenya’s capital. The officer said Friday the man works for an aid organization and was taken Wednesday near the International School. He says the family have received ransom demands. He asked for anonymity as he is [...]
At least 41 people died when a centuries-old minaret collapsed at a mosque in Morocco on Friday, the country’s official news agency reported on Saturday. The incident took place during Friday prayers at the Bab al-Baradeen mosque in Meknes, a town in northern Morocco located 140 km (87 miles) southeast of Rabat. At least 75 [...]
Egypt’s most famous pharaoh, King Tutankhamun, was a frail boy who suffered from a cleft palate and club foot. He died of complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria and his parents were most likely brother and sister. Two years of DNA testing and CT scans on Tut’s 3,300-year-old mummy and 15 others are [...]
The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who commanded a brutal paramilitary unit in his father’s government, was ordered Friday by a federal judge to pay $22.4 Million in damages to five Liberians who were tortured and abused during the West African nation’s bloody civil war. The Liberians sued Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known [...]
NATO forces recaptured a ship Friday that had been taken over by armed Somali pirates, a spokesman for the European Union Naval Forces told reporters. The ship’s 25 crew members were freed, Commander John Harbour said. The Ariella, an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged shipping vessel, was following a route from the Red Sea, through the Gulf [...]
Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled Wednesday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir may be charged with genocide for his role in a five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan’s Darfur region. Al-Bashir, who remains in office, has already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had the genocide charge [...]
Pirates have released a Greek-owned vessel and its crew of 22, months after hijacking it off Somalia, authorities said. The MV Filitsa was released Monday after the shipping company that owned it paid a ransom, said Michael Battzoglou, a security officer and spokesman for the company. He did not say how much had been paid. [...]
Anti-government fighters have fired mortar bombs at the presidential palace in the Somali capital, prompting return fire by troops that killed at least 16 people, medical officials and residents say. Residents and medical officials said on Monday that several bombs hit Mogadishu’s northern Suqa Holaha, or livestock market, district. “At least 16 people died and [...]
The President of Malawi has been chosen to assume the rotating presidency of the African Union, Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader and the body’s outgoing chairman, has said. Gaddafi told an AU summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Sunday that Bingu wa Mutharika would replace him, ending speculation that the Libyan leader would [...]
Rescue crews searched feverishly in poor weather conditions Monday for passengers from an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff with 90 people aboard. By Monday morning, crews had found nine bodies, but no survivors, off the Lebanese coast where the Boeing aircraft had gone down, the Lebanese government said. [...]
French police say they have arrested a Rwandan doctor who is wanted in his homeland on charges of genocide and war crimes. Sosthene Munyemana was detained by police on Wednesday in Bordeaux, in the southwest of France, under an extradition warrant issued by Rwanda. The 45-year-old, who had been working in a hospital emergency ward [...]
Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs have broken out again in the capital of central Nigeria’s Plateau state, Jos, causing dozens of deaths and forcing police to impose a 24-hour curfew. A police official said on Tuesday that as many as 60 people might have been killed since Sunday when clashes started. Mohammed Shittu, an [...]
The largest ransom ever paid to Somali pirates has been dropped onto the deck of a Greek-flagged oil tanker carrying two million barrels of oil. The ransom delivered on Sunday is believed to be between $5.5 Million and $7 Million, according to sources interviewed by reporters. With 28 crew members on board, the Maran Centaurus [...]
Senegal’s president says he will offer free land and “repatriation” to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal. “The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return [...]
Gunmen ambushed the Togo national football team bus Friday en route to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Togo striker Thomas Dossevi said the bus driver was killed in the attack and three others were injured. There has been no official confirmation of who died and who was injured. An armed wing of a [...]
At least 139 people have been killed in tribal clashes following a cattle raid in southern Sudan, local government officials said. Armed attackers from the Nuer tribe raided Dinka cattle herders in the remote Tonj area in Warrap state on Saturday, seizing 5,000 animals, officials said on Thursday. “They killed 139 people and wounded 54,” [...]
The South African president has tied the knot for the fifth time and is now married to three women. In a traditional Zulu ceremony in his homestead in Nkandla, 67-year-old South African Jacob Zuma married Tobeka Madiba, 37, on Monday. The wedding was attended by cabinet ministers and other politicians as well as business leaders [...]
The UN Food Agency has suspended aid distribution to about one million people in southern Somalia following threats of violence against its staff, officials said. World Food Program (WFP) officials said on Tuesday that attacks on aid operations and demands imposed by armed groups have made it “virtually impossible” to continue delivering food to people [...]
A UK-flagged cargo ship with 25 crew has been seized by pirates off Somalia, media reports say. The Asian Glory was taken 620 miles off the Horn of Africa nation’s coast, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said. The ship, which has a multi-national crew, is the second UK-flagged ship hijacked in days, after chemical tanker the [...]
Somali pirates have hijacked a UK-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden, officials say. The St James Park was captured on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain, said the Kenya-based Seafarers Assistance Programme. Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines. Pirate attacks [...]
The North African branch of al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two Italians in Mauritania earlier this month. Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb said in an audio message broadcast on the Al-Arabiya television news channel that they had kidnapped the Italians on December 19, 2009 because of Italy’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...]
Investigators have found no evidence that the man arrested for allegedly trying to blow up a US airliner on Friday was part of a larger plot, a senior US official has said. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, is accused of trying to detonate explosives attached to his body as the plane began its descent [...]
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, appears to have lived a life of privilege. As the son of one of Nigeria’s most prominent businessmen he had access to international travel and a world-class education. He has been described by one former British [...]
Dozens of villagers in the Kenyan district of Kisii are falling prey to superstitious groups accusing them of witchcraft, reports Al Jazeera. The poverty-stricken western district, known as Kenya’s sorcery belt, has seen an increase in mob attacks on individuals and even killings. The poor and elderly in particular are being targeted. Three months ago, [...]
An Ethiopian court has sentenced five people to death and 33 others to life in prison for planning to assassinate government officials. Prosecutors had said the convicted were part of the Ginbot 7 (15 May) group led by Berhanu Nega, a US-based dissident. He was among those sentenced to death, as was opposition leader Melaku [...]
In a scene straight out of the Dark Ages, this Somali man accused of adultery was stoned to death by Islamic thugs while horrified villagers were forced to watch. Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, 48, was buried in a hole up to his chest and then pelted with rocks by fighters from the rebel group Hizbul Islam on [...]
Officials have launched a search for Eritrea’s national football team after the players reportedly failed to return home following a tournament in Kenya. The Eritreans were knocked out of the Cecafa competition for East and Central African nations last week. But when the team plane landed back home, it was reportedly only carrying the coach [...]
The Tanzanian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Canadian High Commissioner after a Canadian diplomat allegedly spat at a policeman and a journalist. A Tanzanian ministry spokesman condemned the incident, saying that his country is considering whether to expel the diplomat concerned. Reporters say the diplomat, angered by a traffic jam, wound down his window and [...]
A South Korean firm has agreed to build 200,000 homes in Ghana over the next six years at a cost of $10 Billion, Seoul officials say. Construction firm STX will set up a joint venture to share the cost of the project with Ghana’s government. Seoul officials say 90,000 of the homes will be owned [...]
A bull-killing ritual can go ahead on Saturday after a court ruled against an animal rights group which tried to have the practice banned in South Africa. The bull is killed during the Ukushwama ritual, an annual thanksgiving event in Kwa-Zulu Natal, in which youngsters kill the animal using their hands. Animal Rights Africa took [...]
At least 19 people have been killed including three government ministers after an explosion ripped through the Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, during a graduation ceremony. A suicide bomber disguised as a woman carried out Thursday’s attack at the hotel during a crowded graduation ceremony for medical students from a local university, Dahir Mohamud Gelle, the Somali [...]
A 16 year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan’s Islamic law into the spotlight. The mother of teenager Silva Kashif said on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the [...]
South Africa has deported an Israeli El Al airline official following allegations that Israel’s secret police, Shin Bet, have been operating in Johannesburg’s international airport. The official was employed by the Israeli embassy in South Africa and had a diplomatic passport, Israel’s Ynet news reported on its website. The deportation stemmed from an investigation by local [...]
LUSAKA Chief Resident Magistrate Charles Kafunda has acquitted Post news editor Chansa Kabwela of the case in which she was charged with circulating obscene materials or things contrary to the law. And Post editor-in-chief Fred M’membe has challenged President Rupiah Banda to appeal Magistrate Kafunda’s acquittal of Kabwela all the way up to the Supreme [...]
Ethnic Ogaden fighters in Ethiopia have launched an offensive in the southeastern Somali region and claim to have recaptured seven towns from government forces. In a statement released early on Saturday, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said its attacks were launched across a broad front and had begun on November 10. “The operation involved thousands of [...]
Prosecutors at a UN-backed court in The Hague are to begin cross-examining Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, over his denials of weapons trading in exchange for “blood diamonds”. Taylor, 61, has denied all 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers during the intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra [...]
A Tunisian blogger and drama teacher, Fatma Riahi, known online as “Arabicca”, has been arrested by Tunisian police. Riahi was summoned to appear before the Criminal Brigade of Gorjani in Tunis on Monday, where she was questioned about her online writing activities, sources said. Riahi was released the same evening only to be summoned again [...]
Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth. Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka. An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after [...]
Medecins Sans Frontieres, the French aid agency, has said that it believes its vaccination centers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been used as “bait” by the military to attack Rwandan opposition fighters. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday that thousands of civilians came under heavy fire on October 17, 2009 at seven of their vaccination clinics when [...]
Simon Mann, a British mercenary jailed for a failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, is to be released from prison after being pardoned by the government. The west African state also granted amnesty to four other mercenaries, including Nick Du Toit, Mann’s South African’s co-conspirator. Mann, a former British special forces officer, was expected to [...]
The United Nations has suspended some of its support to the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saying some soldiers have taken part in the deliberate killing of civilians. Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, said “civilians have been clearly targeted in attacks by certain elements” of the Congolese army. “We have [...]
A Rwandan man found guilty under Canadian law of war crimes committed in his home country has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Quebec Superior Court Justice André Denis handed down the sentence for Désiré Munyaneza in Federal Court in Montreal on Thursday morning, in a precedent-setting [...]
Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, has been prevented from entering Zimbabwe after being stopped at the airport in the capital, Harare. The Austrian academic had been invited to Zimbabwe by Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister, but when he arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was told his visit had been cancelled. Airport officials said [...]
Arkadi Gaydamak, a Russian-born Israeli businessman and Pierre Falcone, his French associate, have been sentenced to six-year jail terms for organising the illegal trafficking of weapons to Angola. Gaydamak, who fled France before the trial, and Falcone were among 42 politicians, businessmen and members of the Paris elite accused of defying a UN embargo to arm the Angolan government [...]
The leader of a banned Kenyan gang has been freed after charges that he murdered 28 people were dropped. Maina Njenga was freed on Friday and called on all fellow Mungiki members to renounce membership and become Christians. Speaking in a church in the centre of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Njenga said: “I have now come to [...]
People living in a slum district of the Algerian capital have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against job and housing shortages. Residents of the Diar Echams area, frustrated over high unemployment and inadequate housing, clashed with police on Wednesday having started their protest on Monday night. The police said at [...]
Botswana President Ian Khama said on Tuesday that peace and stability remain elusive for many countries and that Batswana should not take their stable political environment for granted. Botswana President Ian Khama reviews an honor guard after being sworn-in as the country’s forth democratically elected president in Gaborone. Khama has been sworn-in as Botswana’s fourth [...]
A cargo train carrying oil derailed on Monday afternoon near the central station in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.The derailment occurred at 14:10 local time just as the train was leaving the railway station for Ngaoundere. Two wagons of the cargo train overturned in a curve, pouring out oil from inside the wagons. The leakage blocked [...]
Ali Bongo Ondimba, the victor in the Aug. 30 presidential elections, took oath of office on Friday at the Presidential Palace in Libreville and succeeded his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who died on June 8 at the age of 73, after ruling the West African country for 41 years. “I swear to use all my [...]
Idelphonse Nizeyimana was born in the prefecture of Gisenyi, Rwanda. He was second-in-command of military operations and intelligence (S2 and S3) of the school for non-commissioned officers (ESO) in Butare. He held the rank of captain. In this capacity, he exercised authority over the soldiers and personnel of the camp. In addition, Nizeyimana was a [...]
Kenya Wildlife Service director Julius Kipng’etich, left, flanked by unidentified officials, lifts an elephant tusk from a case at the Nairobi National Park. Kenya police are looking for the people behind a shipment of 684 kilogrammes of ivory seized at Nairobi’s main airport and destined for Bangkok.
At least 58 people are reported to have been killed after security forces opened fire on opposition protesters in Guinea, a human rights group has said. The unrest on Monday occurred near a stadium in Conakry, the capital, where demonstrators had massed to protest against the expected decision of Moussa Dadis Camara, the country’s military leader, to stand in forthcoming elections. [...]
Nigeria’s largest militant group has said it is to end its ceasefire and resume attacks against Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said the move to end the truce on September 15th was in response to the government’s 60-day amnesty program. The government has invited [...]
Suaad Hagi Mohamud has filed a $2.5 Million lawsuit against the government of Canada for the wrongful rejection of her Canadian Citizenship while she was traveling in Kenya to visit her mother. Suaad Hagi was questioned by a KLM airline employee in Kenya who disputed her contention that her Canadian Passport was in fact hers [...]
In a case which some might consider extraordinary, even bizarre, in the 21st century, Zambia is in the process of prosecuting Chansa Kabwela, the editor of Zambia’s influential ‘The Post’ newspaper for “pornography”. Kabwela distributed three photographs of women giving birth in the parking lot of the main Lusaka hospital after being refused admission [...]
Image via Wikipedia The 9,000-mile undersea SAT-3 fibre optic cable that runs from Europe to South Africa through West Africa was cut earlier today causing substantial disruption to internet and cell phone service to Nigeria, Benin, Niger and Togo. Over 75% of the bandwidth was lost when the cable was damaged making communication with West [...]
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